These students have cracked the Formula

A team of 60 engineering students from K. J. Somaiya College of Engineering are poised to take part in the Formula Student India 2016 that will be held on January 20 in Greater Noida. The bright young minds that call themselves Team Orion Racing India unveiled their new racing car Rigel at their Vidyavihar campus on Thursday. Having secured the top spot in last year’s race, their car is positioned at No.1 this year.

Speaking of the making of the car, team captain Neel Thakkar said, “We started the base work last January and improved upon the design. Manufacturing started three months later. Rigel is named after the brightest star in the Orion constellation. The car was ready by October. We have tested it for around 300 kilometres and now we are in a better position to go for the competition.” The team is happy that the car has achieved its target weight and their lightest car among all the eight that they have made so far. “Our current car Rigel weighs around 180 kg,” says Neel, who has been with Team Orion for three years.

So how did they achieve their target weight Karl Karbhari, a fourth year engineering student says, “We moved to a design used by aircraft and Formula one racing cars. We reached that level using carbon fibre prepregs and the cost came up to over 12 lakhs. But even marketing is a step in the right direction and we managed to achieve that,” he says.

Having made the right machine, the team is feeling confident about the race. “We are not thinking about winning right now. We are at a pretty good position and we have an excellent team. If we give our best we will surely do well,” Neel says.